Blast from the past: the street where I grew up

While browsing the web, I usually find tons of pictures where citizens of Zagreb affectionately praise the city and claim usual nonsense that is "prettiest city in the world" and "we could never live anywhere else". Now, I always take these bombastic statements with a pinch of salt, because I was simply born with a natural reserve when it comes to putting something above everything else - it all comes down to perspective, experience and subjectivity. Even as a kid in a primary school I refused to believe our sea is the prettiest/bluest/clearest which was the official line fed to us kids - surely people on the other side of the world think their sea is the best sea in the world. Same for Zagreb - it has interesting Gothic architecture and occasional pretty, forgotten corner (that somehow escaped commercialisation) but to proclaim it prettiest city in the world sounds a bit far-fetched - sorry folks, even though I was born in Zagreb, I have seen many other prettiest places and during my 15 years of work on cruise ships I have been all over the world. As a capitol it naturally towers above everything else in Croatia but if you are looking for the similar style of architecture & culture, Vienna and Prague are far more fascinating. 

The busiest pedestrian street is nowadays ultra-commercialised Tkalčićeva street which is now completely occupied by cafe bars, terraces and night life. It seems that people find it very romantic because it still preserves old houses from centuries ago - however, dear reader, I grew up there, in fact this is where I started walking. And believe me, there was nothing romantic about living in a shabby, creaking & derelict houses without proper bath and shared WC in a corridor. It would be wonderful if I could say yes, it was poor but full of heart - no, it was poor, dirty and full of prostitution, alcoholism and theft. Neighbours stole from each other and on one occasion someone even stole our WC seat. For the life of me I don't understand how can anybody romanticise about living here, when people lacked central heating and used wood for heat, everybody washed in basins and hardly anybody had even a washing machine. These photographs shows the street exactly the way I remember it - it was not pedestrian yet, there were some occasional cars parked, houses were falling apart and there was not a trace of future cafe terraces that eventually swallowed the whole area. Somehow I lived on three different addresses here so I know the street very well and was a witness when in the late 1980s cafe bars started to mushroom everywhere - I lived my solitary student life with windows closed to block the noise from outside, because drunkards were yelling deep into the night. I left the place as fast as I could once I got the opportunity and believe me, I never went back - even when I visit Zagreb, I stay away from this place because it brings back bad memories and find it very amusing that this - previously one of the dirtiest and poorest neighbourhoods - is now considered trendy and fun. Sorry but I lived there and find nothing romantic about it. And from the safe distance now, I can tell you that there are many, many cities far prettiest than Zagreb. To people who could "never live anywhere else" I suggest, go and travel, see the world. Places like picturesque Samobor and Varaždin are far prettier. 

"Ako Priđeš Bliže" by Zdravko Čolić (1977)

"Ako Priđeš Bliže" is quintessential Zdravko Čolić album and the one that really catapulted him to the status of superstar - if centuries from now, some aliens find one illustration of who Čolić was, this is the right example. The team behind it is very much the same one that created his previous debut "Ti i Ja" but by now everything fell in place and Kornelije Kovač masterminded all-hits, no-filler collection that genuinely sold truckloads in every corner of Yugoslavia - "Jugoton" knew the worth of 26 year old singer, because they cleverly added his poster in album cover and you can bet it graced countless walls at the time. Arsen Dedić, Kemal Monteno and even Bora Đorđević are amongst cooks and songs were uplifting, irresistible pop that ruled radio waves ever since - without a doubt this was singer's golden hour and the highlight of his career. Spectacular concert tour that followed is still remembered as first time we had real pop star filling stadiums, with backing dancers and all shebang - the documentary filmed during the tour is still fascinating and joy to watch for sheer enthusiasm and energy exploding from the stage. 

Some 40+ years after its release, I re-visited "Ako Priđeš Bliže" and was amused with the fact that I still know all the lyrics, even though I never actually had album back in the day - music was impossible to avoid because it played on the radio and TV non stop, to the point that it became soundtrack of an era. I mean, girls were cutting their wrists for Čolić and babies were named Zdravko all over the country - this was the first time we had genuine pop star beloved absolutely everywhere. It occurred to me that its interesting why exactly this guy and not someone else - after all, we had several other contenders with equally good voices (Boba Stefanović, Dalibor Brun, Zlatko Pejaković for example - they all started in rock bands and were more than capable to sing absolutely everything) but it seems it all boils down to material - because Čolić did not write his own songs, he depended on strong producer and was always good at following instructions - in a way, he was a producer's dream because he never pushed his own agenda or forced individuality (his singing is technically perfect but without a trace of distinctive idiosyncrasy) and perhaps this was the key of his music success, the fact that he was pleasant and easy to embrace by various generations. Some might say that his looks certainly didn't hurt album sales, but I disagree because music was so irresistible that survived decades and he still performs these songs today on sold-out concerts, long after his poster days. Best of all, this is pure pop and there is not a trace of unfortunate Balkan folk flirtations found in his later work. 

"Teško mi je zaboravit tebe" by Dušan Dančuo (1971)

The phenomenon of romantic gypsy music seems to be particularly beloved in Eastern Europe and tradition seems to go way back to times of Austrian-Hungarian empire when travelling musicians worked they way trough Vienna, Prague and Budapest - this type of music (often backed with violins and played to bleary-eyed audiences who cried in their beer) left its mark all over the place, including Croatia where "starogradska muzika" was somehow always perceived as more urban and distinct from traditional folk - nowadays we accept venerable Zvonko Bogdan as the king of this type of music, but long before Bogdan ever entered recording studio, there was already a towering figure of Dušan Dančuo who mellifluously crooned very much the same repertoire. Both men can be seen as continuation of old tradition that simply goes on under various disguises to this day.

Compared to Bogdan, Dančuo was technically superior singer - both men were gifted with seductive, soft voices but Dančuo was simply born with one of the most beautiful sounds and he used it very much like popular Italian singers of post WW2 generation (in fact, "Buongiorno Tristezza" was one of his earliest recordings from 1958.) Instead of going in that direction, like many of his contemporaries (Marko Novosel for example) Dančuo found his niche in music that combined Hungarian and Gypsy elements and was hugely popular all over Yugoslavia at the time. During 1960s he released three volumes of EPs titled "Popular romances" with songs of mostly Hungarian background - all of them are collected on this 1971. LP which serves as compilation and recapitulation of his work up to that point. At that time concept of LP abum was still new for "Jugoton" where they preferred playing safe and albums were mainly compilations of previously released singles. Dančuo will of course, continue for decades in very much same style, but today his work seems to have been little obscured which is a pity because he was really a great artist and important link between pre-WW2 tradition and later success of Bogdan and his followers. 

Armistead Maupin continued (but not for long)

So I continued with "More Tales of the City" and "Further Tales of the City" continuously wondering how is it possible that I had actually read these novels but completely forgot about them, and now suddenly I remember why I stop reading the saga. First two parts are focused on the same list of characters, all residents of colourful house on 28 Barbary Lane (Mary Ann, landlady Anna Madrigal, Mona, Brian, Michael, etc) and how they all intermingle and their lives re connected one way or the other - but as I started the third part, author suddenly decided to fast forward few years and now we are in the present time where everything is different, characters are re-arranged, paired differently and in fact focus is actually not on them at all but on some new (super irritating) characters. I was so confused that I even went on line wondering have I missed one novel somewhere in the middle - maybe there was another sequel that would explain how & why we came to this point? - no, Maupin simply decided to skip few years and now we are here, with familiar old characters being reduced to cameos and pushed in the background while story is about other people and some silly thriller plot. Needless to say, I am not enjoying this third part at all and having incredibly difficult time going trough it, seems like it takes me double amount of time to read this novel, where previous two just went so smoothly. Apparently there are six more sequels but to be honest at this point I am not so enthusiastic about it anymore and will definitely stop here. Just as I did the first time around.